Travels in Venezuela with Andre and Vinicius

Even though Venezuela and Guyana share a long border I actually had to briefly cross into an isolated part of Brazil from Guyana in order to get to Venezuela by land. From the Guyana/Brazil border I split a taxi with some friendly Brazilians to get to the provincial capital of Boa Vista. I didn't see much of Boa Vista other than the bus station and a huge Stihl store which made me wonder how many chainsaws they sold to be used in the amazon region.

At the bus station in Boa Vista I bought a ticket to make it to the Venezuelan border. There I met a couple of great guys from Brazil, Andre and Vinicius. They were also going to Venezuela so we ended up traveling together, all the while speaking a funny mix of Portuguese, Spanish and English. We had a lot of great adventures and conversations along the way, and it was one of the highlights of my trip to travel almost a week with them. We all loved photography and they are great photographers so I included some of their photos in the blog.



Traveling from Boa Vista, Brazil to the border with Venezuela.

Andre

Andre

After we bused it to the Venezuelan border we hitch-hiked across and stayed in Santa Elena for the night. Since the immigration offices were closed that evening we returned the next day to get our exiting stamps from Brazil and entrance stamps into Venezuela. Upon entering Venezuela we were each given the flu shot as a minor defense against the Swine Flu.

When we crossed back across the border that morning there was huge line of cars waiting to get into Venezuela and fill their tanks. Venezuela is one of the world's largest oil producing nations and they almost give it away at less than 20 cents a gallon. Cars were lined up at the border to fill up in Venezuela and return to Brazil where gas is much more expensive. One of the border guards told us that some vehicles made multiple trips, draining their tanks in Brazil and reselling their fuel at a profit.











Near the Venezuelan/Brazilian border in the south of Venezuela there are a number of natural wonders worth visiting. There is the Grand Savannah, Canaima National Park, the table top mountain of Roraima, and the worlds highest single drop waterfall, Angel Falls. We didn't have a lot of time to do a long trek to Roraima and we were all traveling on a budget so we made the best decisions we could based on our options. We decided to see the Canaima National Park and the spectacular Angel Falls, which was not the cheapest option but something not to be missed. Although we weren't all that far from the park and the falls they were inaccessible by road or boat so we would have to fly to get there.

We hitched to the airport in Santa Elena to see what our flight options were and it turned out that flights to Angel Falls were almost half as much from a city 12 hours to the north. We decided to take a night bus to that city, Ciudad Bolivar, to try to catch a flight to the falls the next morning. The rest of the day we spent in the busy little town of Santa Elena.









Our bus was delayed getting to Ciudad Bolivar and we arrived the next morning just about the time that all of the flights were leaving for the Angel Falls. On top of that we were told that the next two days were completely booked due to people taking advantage of the coming three day weekend. We had traveled 12 hours north of all the natural wonders of southern Venezuela and we were stuck in a noisy city. All of our scheming had come to a halt and it was time for a new plan.

Vinicius and Andre had come with their camping gear prepared to see the natural attractions of southern Venezuela and they had to go back that way anyhow so I thought the latest development would spell the end of our trip together since I would be continuing on to Colombia. They talked about what to do and I had to laugh when they turned to me and said “let's go to the Caribbean!”. John Steinbeck wrote something wise about travel saying that many times you don't take a trip, but rather the trip takes you. Truer words couldn't be said in this instance. I had no idea I would meet these great guys from Brazil, and I had no plans to go to the beach, but it was the way to go. I was in. We quickly made it back to the bus terminal and caught a shared taxi to the coast almost 4 hours away. From the city of Puerto La Cruz we caught a rickety bus to the small beach of Playa Colorado in time to have a beer while watching the sun set over the blue waters of the Caribbean. A rather strange sight considering the Caribbean is in the east.






The beach was great fun and the people, especially the kids, were very friendly. The kids had a great time showing off for us and we had a good time taking their photos.










Vinicius

Andre

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Vinicius

The next day we decided to visit some of the islands and beaches of Mochima National Park. from the fishing village of Mochima we took a boat and snorkeling tour of the park and choosing to spend most of the day on the beautiful Playa Blanca. The snorkeling was really cool. There was plenty of coral and millions of silver fish drifting in huge schools. They were nearly fearless of us swimming around. It was an amazing experience.









Vinicius


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Getting back to Playa Colorado was a wild experience that I can't fully describe here. We caught a bus full of drunk people that stopped twice to pick up a case of beers. And then were at least two bottles of rum being passed around the bus. At first we were a little concerned about our situation, but soon we got into the spirit and had a great time, laughing until it hurt.

Along the way there was an accident that sobered the party and made us wonder how many people were drinking and driving.









Back at play Colorado we caught another beautiful sunset


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The next it was back to the beach chasing the shade of the palm trees, watching kids play in the sand and, meeting more people on the beach.


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The next day was another great day on the beach. We ended up meeting a group of Gringos that were celebrating a birthday and taking a boat to the next beach down the coast so we joined the party and had a great time. It was nice to speak English, but it was also fun to meet other locals on the beach. Doing what I do I found my way into a couple groups and ended up having a great time, and some good conversations as well. Other travelers had told me that Venezuelans weren't particularly open, but I found it to be the opposite. One thing I was curious about were the politics both internally, and externally towards Venezuela's supposed great enemy, the US. I had no problems at all being from the States, if anything most of the people I met sympathized with the United States over their own president, Hugo Chavez. In the next blog I will include something more about the politics. For now it is good times on the beach!







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